Engine OS 5.0.x – Audio stutter and lag when loading tracks

Engine DJ Hardware Standalone Controllers
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272

I gave it another careful try today and also performed a factory reset before testing.

If I leave a longer pause between loading tracks, the issue seems to occur a little less frequently.

However, when I move through tracks more quickly, the audio interruptions are unfortunately even more noticeable than before. On a few occasions, the unit even froze completely for around one to three seconds before continuing playback.

I have not yet repeated the tests without embedded artwork. Simply deleting the artwork folder is not enough, as the database still contains the references, and I would prefer not to rebuild.

Unfortunately, based on my own testing, version 5.0.3 is a step backwards rather than an improvement for this particular issue.

I cannot comment on the other reported problems, such as crashes, because I only use TIDAL as an absolute last resort if I do not have a requested track with me, which fortunately has not happened so far.

I genuinely hope that at least other users benefit from the fixes included in this release.

This Saturday I will once again be working at a venue where, due to the power setup, standalone operation is my only practical option. It is becoming increasingly difficult because, even though the owner is a good friend, I cannot keep relying on borrowed equipment forever.

273

Crikey, well I’m still on 5.0.1 and have no idea whether to try 5.0.3 or not after reading the last few posts haha

274

From what I’ve seen, if you haven’t had issues upgrading won’t add issues. But I could be wrong.

275

This is not my post but thank you for your honest review.

276

I ran a database cleanup via that button near the backup database option in settings and watched it delete all the remaining artwork and the database file got substantially smaller. Try running that when your external drive is connected to engine DJ. It worked for me.

277

Correct me if I’m wrong but are some of you folks completely deleting album artwork and essentially ‘losing’ that feature on the unit now?

278

I think you got it wrong.

@U-w-B is not talkin’ about the “database” (sqlite-file). He refers “artwork folder” and probably the combination of the field “hash” within the albumArtwork-Table…

If you clear just the images in the folder, the hash-value still remains n may lead to [unknown behaviour] ?!?

I think the conversion tool in EngineDj Desktop hasn’t shown any problems (on my system) as long you havent cancelled the process… So most ppl should have a shrinked sqlite-file with the current desktop app…

279

That was what I had to do. What comes to the 5.0.3 release notes, this is not because of high resolution cover art, but any cover art. ALL of my cover art was 500x500px and “shrinked” with Cesium image compressor, and all of them was like 20kb to 30kb. I don’t miss the cover art that much, although it was nice to see the old vinyl logos on jog wheels.

280

FML … after reading your post, i corrupted my database (internal ssd) on purpose…

I killed all album foreign keys in Tracks…

“UPDATE Track set albumArtId=null”

guess what… now i can run my stresstest without stutters…

so… anyone who’s dependend on the device and can live without the albumart, has now an easy way to improve the perfomance a lot.

In compare to @Mikko solutions, you dont have to break your “original” sound files…

Stupid me, i could have tried this 7 weeks ago already…

281

So is anyone free from audio stutters with 5.0.3?

282

No, I personally use mp3tag (free and intuitive) to convert all album art to 600x600 and I’ve never had any problems.

283

Hi everyone. After two hours of testing, I’ve found the cause of the audio dropouts I was experiencing. I’m using version 5.0.3, and the issues started appearing from version 5 onwards. I used a track from my collection to run the test; simply removing all the cover art using Mp3tag solved the problem. I even noticed the tracks loading faster and the audio dropouts disappearing—it’s as if the issue was linked to the cover art. I also tried reducing the cover art size; the smaller the image, the fewer dropouts occurred, but the problem—which many of us have been dealing with—was truly resolved only when the cover art was removed completely. I ran several tests and loaded tracks repeatedly to check for dropouts, and everything worked perfectly. Those of you experiencing audio dropouts should give this a try and see how it goes. Hope this helps! Cheers.

284

I’m confused why one would want to run 5.0.x without album art instead of simply downgrading to 4.2.0…

285

We want v5 with cover art to help Denon identify the cause of the audio dropouts, make this version stable, and fix issues—after all, that’s what updates are for: fixing problems and keeping everything up to date. Cheers.

286

It’s a little too early to be certain, as I’ve only had a quick 20 minute session so far…but zero stutters in 5.0.3… No factory resets or anything other than updating… So for me at least, 5.0.3 might do exactly what it says on the tin…

Will have a longer blast tomorrow and feed back…

287

Thanks for the suggestion, I do appreciate people taking the time to offer ideas.

I honestly don’t think version 4.2 is the right answer for me, though.

It may work well for your workflow, and that’s perfectly fine. For me, however, it simply isn’t an acceptable solution.

None of us knows what other issues or fixes we’d be giving up by rolling back that far. Every firmware release contains not only new features, but also bug fixes and other improvements that were considered important at the time.

Running without album artwork is fine for testing, and I will test it again once I’ve found the library I prepared with all artwork removed and rebuilt the database.

For live use, however, I don’t want to give up artwork. Besides helping identify tracks quickly, it’s an important part of my workflow. Everyone works differently, and that’s exactly why one person’s workaround isn’t necessarily another person’s solution.

Ironically, I couldn’t care less about the small jog displays. The browser artwork, however, is something I rely on all the time.

So… another weekend with the XDJ-AZ. I’m slowly developing a bit of a love-hate relationship with that thing.

288

Hi @zotan

'cause i spend dozens hours on maintaining my lib. Any suggestion to go back to 4.3.4Desktop + 4.2.0 OS by “resetting” my main database would kill this work and is not an option…

I haven’t seen any tool converting into 4.2.0 scheme from a 5.0.x, I don’t get how they built the old hash-value string, so i can’t write my own.

Trading artwork vs. stability seems currently the only thing the user can actively do…

…

I suggest a temporary option in settings “Show Album Art enabled/disabled”…

Or am i asking for something that is already existing?

289

I would like to share an update on my testing.

First of all, I have already forwarded my initial findings to Brian from Denon Support so the development team can investigate them. I think they deserve the opportunity to verify everything internally before anyone jumps to conclusions.

I also want to say something about this thread itself.

Over the past few weeks there have been many different theories, frustrations and ideas. Looking back, I think the most valuable part of this discussion has been that several people kept approaching the problem objectively instead of simply assuming user error or blaming each other.

In particular, I would like to thank Florian_Kunz. His calm and technically reasoned comments regarding artwork made me seriously investigate that direction. I would also like to thank DJ.Jax, who contacted me privately and encouraged me to continue testing instead of simply accepting that “it is what it is.”

That combination of constructive feedback and technical discussion eventually led me to perform a controlled A/B test.

The setup was identical in every respect:

  • Same Prime 4+
  • Same Engine OS version
  • Same SD card
  • Same FLAC files
  • Same Artwork folder
  • Same Engine database

The only change was removing the artwork references from the Engine SQLite database. The audio files themselves were not modified and their embedded artwork remained untouched.

The result was immediate:

  • All artwork disappeared from the Prime 4+, exactly as expected.
  • During my testing, the audio stutter while loading tracks also disappeared.

I then repeatedly loaded tracks as quickly as possible, including STEMS tracks that had previously reproduced the problem very reliably, and so far I have not been able to trigger a single audio dropout.

To be absolutely clear:

This does not prove that artwork itself is the root cause.

However, it is a strong indication that the artwork lookup/loading process, or something closely related to it, deserves careful investigation.

I will continue testing over the coming days to verify that the behaviour remains fully reproducible. If it does, I will gladly provide the complete technical details to Denon so their developers can reproduce the same test internally.

Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone who contributed constructively. This is exactly how a community can help solve difficult problems: by sharing observations, challenging assumptions respectfully and working together to isolate variables instead of assigning blame.

Hopefully this moves us one step closer to a permanent fix.

290

@Florian_Kunz I had a quick look into this, the only difference in the database schema between firmware 4.3.x and 5.0.x is a new column Track.albumArtSourceHash. This matches my testing - downgrading just causes you to lose the in-database album artwork (as that’s missing after running database optimization). There should be no other issues caused by downgrading. I’ll have a look to see if there’s a quick way to re-copy the album art into the database to restore that functionality, too.

291

It looks like simply pressing “re-import track information” in the right click menu loads the album art. Tested on Engine Desktop 4.3.4 with a 5.0.0 database.